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Starbucks opened a new location Monday at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, Calif. While we don’t normally cover Starbucks openings, this location features something different that the folks at Disney and Starbucks wanted to show off to us. We had a chance to chat with Bill Sleeth, Vice President of Design, Americas who was responsible for designing this stylish new Starbucks Store.

Bill Sleeth, Vice President of Design, Americas, Starbucks

Bill Sleeth, Vice President of Design, Americas, Starbucks

Firstly, this location has some new technology that won’t be on display at your local Starbucks. Disney is known for its storytelling and this influence is apparent in the Starbucks locations inside Disney Parks.  While this new location doesn’t live in the world of Main Street U.S.A. or 1920s Hollywood, there was a deliberate attempt to make this Starbucks tell a different type of story. As Bill Sleeth described the five year long project to bring Starbucks to Disney, every design element was deliberate and makes sure it makes sense. Regular readers are probably aware of TechnoBuffalo’s affinity for design, technology and user interface/interaction blending into one seamless experience. We can appreciate the blending of technology and functionality.

Nine 46-inch displays, measuring about 10 feet wide, tells the story of Starbucks coffee starting from beans from its Costa Rican farms to your local store. The highly stylized images pop on the gorgeous high-def displays. 

Lounge

Lounge

A massive 70-inch touchscreen digital chalkboard acts as a centerpiece for an interactive lounge, where guests can decompress or play on the interactive board while sipping their lattes.

The display renders a chalk outline video, plays games and allows you to make silly chalk drawings. There was very little lag as users played around with the system, even as multiple users were drawing on the board at the same time. The interface was developed in-house by Starbucks during a span of year and is expected to received periodic updates with new features and applications.

This is the first of four new locations to be built across Disney properties in the U.S. Starbucks expects to implement the technology into other Disney locations in the future.  For now you can visit this Starbucks Store in Downtown Disney in Anaheim, CA and the check out the new interactive wall.